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1958/59
THE STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY
Some Points of Interest, 1958-59
David D. Henry
President
University of Illinois
THE LIBRARY OF THE
JAM 8
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
I. Some Current Indices
As we look at the agenda of current business, we may infer that the
University faces the future from a position of strength.
ENROLMENTS AND ADMISSIONS
While I do not wish to emphasize a quantitative measurement of the
University's work, we should take note that the University of Illinois in-
creased in a year of relatively stable enrolments among the large universities
in the Middle West.
The regular fall enrolment of the University this year reached the figure
of 25,325, an increase of 1,082 with a significant increase on each campus.
This enrolment places the University of Illinois second to the University
of Minnesota among Council of Ten Universities (Minnesota has 26,568).
The increase is second to the University of Wisconsin in this group (Wis-
consin's increase was 1,623) . It registers the largest number of new freshmen
(5,589).
The University's total increase took place despite a decline of 900 in
veteran enrolment. The extramural enrolment is 3,678, compared with 3,074
last year. Thus the grand total including residents and extramural enrol-
ments for the year is 29,003, contrasted with 27,317 last year.
Provost Gordon Ray has identified the following as contributing factors
to the increase:
1. Improved economic conditions in the state and nation: more money
available to students and their families, better opportunities for jobs the
previous summer, etc.
2. The state scholarship program: 28 per cent of the 2,160 students re-
ceiving state scholarships elected to attend the University of Illinois.
3. More efficient counseling and admissions arrangements: the University's
relations with the high schools are more extensive, efficient, and cordial
than they have been in the past, and admission, registration, and fresh-
man week procedures have improved. The steps taken in the administra-
tion of testing, job placement, counseling, registration, student aids,
housing contracts, etc., have all made their contribution to improved
relationships.
4. Availability of approved housing for nearly all students, both women and
men.
It should be pointed out, moreover, that the increase of 1,082 students was
realized without any relaxation of standards. Denials totaled about 2,500
this year, as opposed to about 1,700 in 1957-58, when statistics on this matter
were kept for the first time.
Indeed, the complexion of the student body has changed as a result of the
new admissions practices, according to Dean C. W. Sanford. Nearly 50 per
cent of the freshmen who enrolled last September on the Urbana-Champaign
campus came from the top quarter of their high school classes, and nearly
80 per cent were from the top half — a significant increase in each category
over the previous year. Comparable improvement was noticed at the Chi-
cago Undergraduate Division.
The 14.68 per cent from the third quarter of the graduating class and the
5.81 per cent from the lowest quarter are the smallest percentages in these
categories in the University's record.
This improvement in the quality of the student body has been achieved
without arbitrary admissions regulations and with proper consideration of
the capacities of the individual student.
SOME ACADEMIC NOTES
Recruitment
The past year has been a notable one in faculty recruitment. While we
have regretted the departure of several honored and respected colleagues to
posts of greater responsibility, we have been gratified to announce an impres-
sive list of distinguished appointments. In general the University has been
able to meet the intense academic competition among the first-rate institu-
tions of the country. As will be noted later, to hold our own in this kind of
competition will require prompt improvement in facilities and salaries, but
at this moment we are pleased with the personnel record.
Recognitions
The list of faculty honors and posts of professional responsibility is
impressive.
The bibliography of the University faculty has been the most extensive on
record.
The grants and contracts that have come to faculty members for research
and experimental work from the national foundations, from the state, from
individual and corporate donors, as well as from the federal government,
have been reassuring. We are pleased, both for the confidence they reflect
and the opportunities for extended service they provide.
Alumni gifts to the University of Illinois Foundation have also come to an
all-time high.
New Programs
While budget and space limitations have restricted expansion of the edu-
cational program during the past year, a number of curricular innovations
should be mentioned.
A five-year program leading to simultaneous degrees in engineering and
liberal arts went into effect this fall. It was established to meet the growing
need for graduates with backgrounds in both areas.
A new curriculum in forest production and in wood technology and utili-
zation has been established.
An honors program in mathematics was inaugurated this fall, designed to
give a select group of freshmen and sophomores opportunity for a deeper
and more thorough study of mathematics than is generally possible in the
standard courses.
Advanced work is being offered leading to new degrees of Doctor of
Philosophy in Anthropology, Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering, and
Master of Accounting Science.
Additional courses are being offered to meet increased interest in Russian
language and civilization.
A new engineering mechanics curriculum opened this fall as a new field of
technical preparation.
New Buildings
The buildings now under construction will add important research and
teaching quarters. The biology building, fine and applied arts building, art
gallery, the physics building, the computer laboratory, the library addition
will be important new academic assets for the University.
50th Anniversary of the Graduate College
A highlight of the academic year was the observance of the fiftieth anni-
versary of the founding of the Graduate College.
A study of leading American graduate schools published in December,
1957, listed the University of Illinois in the top group in the number of
degrees conferred and in the number of fields where the University gradu-
ated large numbers. The study pointed out that among the institutions
which gave the largest number of degrees in at least 10 out of the 48
identified fields, Illinois ranked sixth. By a similar study in 1925-35, Illinois
ranked eleventh. Assuming that the number of degrees awarded is indirectly
a reflection of quality as measured by superior students, particularly where
high standards of admission and graduation obtain, the increasing stature
of the University of Illinois Graduate College is a point of pride. The in-
creasing enrolment in the Graduate College is another satisfying index.
These scattered observations on enrolment, on the faculty, on educational
progress, on new facilities define a year of sound growth and increased
strength.
If the measurement of our work were in a setting of static demand and
unchanging circumstance, we would have reason to be assured, if not com-
placent, about our ability to meet tasks ahead.
Because the University is confronted with new demands, because the con-
text for its work has changed, and because resources are below those required
for a continuation of the high level performance of the past, it is important
that we take stock and share our concern with the people of the state.
I shall present a view of the tasks ahead under the headings: Internal
Planning; External Planning; the Budget Year; the Faculty Emphasis; and
University Relations.
II. Internal Planning
Two reports were issued during the past year which I believe will come to
be regarded as milestones in the history of the University.
I refer to the preliminary report of the University Study Committee on
Future Programs and to the report of the University Building Program
Committee on Requirements for the Decade, 1959-69.
THE COMMITTEE ON FUTURE PROGRAMS
The Study Committee on Future Programs was appointed in June, 1957.
It was asked to be a medium for institutional self-examination and to make
suggestions for next steps in over-all educational planning. I expressed the
hope that the Committee would emphasize outstanding guidelines for future
development, some points of emphasis, some restated objectives, some new
objectives, and programs to implement these suggestions. In short, I asked
the Committee to provide the groundwork for future educational planning
for the University.
Recognizing that the future of the University of Illinois will be affected by
state-wide planning and the development of other institutions, the Univer-
sity Study Committee accepted its charge within these broad limitations.
Since its continuing work would necessarily rest upon its assumptions
about the chief responsibilities and aims of the University in the next decade,
the Committee last June issued a preliminary report on this subject, together
with some observations on the growth and size of the campus at Urbana-
Champaign and on general education in the University.
The President's Faculty Conference
To assist the Committee in measuring the acceptance of its general prem-
ises and to stimulate and collect suggestions which might be useful in future
deliberations, a conference of approximately 100 faculty members was called
in an all-day session on June 9, 1958. 1
Because I believe the conclusions of the Committee and the conference
will be influential in the future administration and planning of the Univer-
sity, I give them stress today. The statement of future aims and responsibil-
ities of the University, the heart of the report, follows.
Future Aims and Responsibilities of the University
We will assume that state-wide educational developments look toward wider
sharing of undergraduate education among public and private institutions, especially
at the freshman and sophomore level. On the other hand it may be assumed that
for the next decade at least the University will continue to be the principal public
institution with comprehensive programs at advanced levels in the fundamental
fields of learning and in the professions. The spectrum of the University's activi-
ties will continue to be broad but the chief functions on which its efforts should be
focused as the State's educational system develops are the following:
a. Teaching, research, and scholarly and creative activity in the fundamental fields
of learning.
b. Teaching and research in professional and occupational areas closely dependent
on the fundamental fields of learning.
c. Liberal education of able young men and women who do not intend to become
highly trained specialists and, to the extent possible, of students aiming toward
specialized or professional training.
d. Vocational training in fields which are clearly of substantial and wide impor-
tance to the State and Nation, especially those which require four-year programs
including sound preparation in the fundamental fields of learning and which the
University is uniquely or best fitted to provide.
e. Extension education and essential public services which require the kinds and
level of expertness represented in the faculty of the University.
The characteristic feature in all of these functions is the emphasis and depend-
ence on the fundamental branches of learning. It is this feature which will give the
University unity and coherent purpose in the midst of diversity of function and of
large numbers of students and faculty. All of these objectives are important. The
order in which they are listed expresses the completeness with which the University
must attempt to fulfil them. Thus teaching and the advancement of knowledge in
the basic fields must underlie all of the University's essential work. For the next
decade at least the University will have nearly unique responsibilities among the
state-supported institutions in graduate teaching and research in the basic fields
and in a number of professional and occupational fields. Liberal education, how-
ever, will be shared among many colleges, as will vocational and some professional
1 The abstract of proceedings of the conference together with the preliminary report
will be printed within the next few weeks and made available to the members of the
faculty and others who are especially interested. At the close of the conference, a
consensus was stated, although, of course, not every participant necessarily subscribed
to every part of every statement.
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training among a different group of colleges. The opportunities and needs for
extension education and public service will be so numerous that the University will
have to select those in which it can be most useful and effective and which are
consistent with the major educational responsibilities of the University.
Fundamental Fields of Learning: The fundamental fields are mathematics, the
biological and physical sciences, the humanities, the fine arts and the social sci-
ences. They are fundamental not only because they have long been studied for
their own sake but also because they underlie most fields of applied knowledge.
In science, for example, basic research is the source for every advance in applied
science.
Premises in Educational Planning
As I see it, three fundamental theses emerge from the report and the
discussion conference.
1. Choices must be made.
2. Institutional balance is essential to continuing effectiveness.
3. Relationships with the people of the state must remain direct and
personal.
The necessity for making choices arises from the pressure of additional
numbers and the many other new demands while resources remain relatively
limited within any one period. The University cannot be all things to all
people and maintain quality and over-all effectiveness.
The state university historically has followed the assumption that it would
not only be a comprehensive instructional institution for college age youth,
but a service institution willing to do anything of educational good for the
general public.
This objective may have been acceptable at the time when there was a
limited number of agencies for education and related services and a much
smaller constituency; but today in the interest of efficiency and quality and
the best utilization of future resources, the comprehensive state university
must make some choices.
The Committee warns us that the kinds of choices that the University can
make will be affected by the availability of educational opportunity else-
where in the state. Will community colleges be established at the needed
rate? Will they have the resources to develop good programs? Will the
other state colleges and universities be strengthened? How rapidly may the
four-year program in Chicago be developed?
The second major thesis of this report is that balance is essential to quality
and to over-all effectiveness. The report points out the importance of bal-
ance between numbers of students in the lower division and in the upper
division, among professional offerings, among activities in instruction, re-
search, and service. It should be added that there must also be balance
between facilities and enrolments, between campus size and the services of
the local communities, between resources and demands.
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It would be a mistake to interpret the report or the conference statement
as an endorsement of arbitrary restriction of the University's growth. Growth
is a normal function of a living institution. To stimulate growth artificially
is unwise. To limit growth arbitrarily is likewise unwise — it is as unwise
now as it would have been when the University first reached an enrolment
of one thousand or ten thousand. However, to plan for the University's
growth to be in balance with respect to its several responsibilities and in
relationship to its resources is a primary obligation of all concerned with its
administration.
There, indeed, may be an optimum size for any one institution at any one
place but that size should be determined by the formula of balance, not by
a prejudgment in arithmetic. As long as the University has resources to do
its work and keeps a proper balance within the objectives which it accepts,
with quality of performance controling, it will continue to increase in
strength, stature, and effectiveness.
There are those who advocate altering the nature of the comprehensive
state university to make it an institution with research as its main objective,
with instructional service only for the intellectual elite. Following this course
would invite a diminution of strength.
The University of Illinois is strong because it is multi-faceted. It reaches
into the life of the state on a broad front and in many ways. An arbitrary
restriction on its size or its scope would cut its roots in popular support.
Other institutions would be called upon to perform its discarded functions.
It is not necessary, while encouraging research, graduate work, and achieve-
ment from gifted students, to shut off the University's many other services
as long as they are related to the over-all objectives as phrased in the
preliminary report of the Committee on University Programs.
The third thesis of the report, implied if not stated, is that the vitality of
the University is affected by its relationships to the people of the state.
Here, as in other aspects of the University's work, the services undertaken
should be closely related to teaching and research. Yet the philosophy of
grass roots service, affecting in some way every home, business, every citizen's
welfare, must remain a guide. Thus, we are faced with the question of how
to change our methods, practices, and program pattern in order to achieve
balance, with the highest quality of performance, without changing the
philosophy of broad and meaningful service to the people of the state. The
method, obviously, now must be the discovery and dissemination of new
knowledge, the provision of leadership and consultation in new forms, as
well as in conventional instruction.
In summary, the Committee's report represents an emphasis on the im-
portance of careful planning within a coherent framework. In the past, the
consideration of new developments has been sporadic and disjointed, unre-
lated to an over-all plan.
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I believe the report of the Committee and the conference should be noted
as a significant step in educational planning, consonant with the physical
planning which has been so well carried forward over the years by the
Building Program Committee of the University.
In sending the preliminary report of the Committee on Future Programs
to the members of the Board of Trustees, I indicated that action is not
necessary at this time. I stated that I was impressed with the validity of the
recommendations, however, and that the outline of direction given by the
Committee is one in which I concur.
BUILDING PLANNING, 1959-69
A second milestone of the year was the report of the Building Program
Committee, outlining the requirements for buildings and land between 1959
and 1969.
Confronted by the necessity of projecting building completions beyond two
years, by the need to make clear the over-all requirements upon which the
bond issue allocations were based, and by the need to relate building
requirements to educational developments as well as to the enrolments of
the future, the Building Program Committee in 1957 set out to define a
ten-year program.
The recommendations for the capital budget as approved by the Board of
Trustees for 1959-61 are related to the tentative recommendation for
1961-63 and these in turn are related to the ten-year outline.
The report has taken into account minimum uniform standards for the
campus, the sources of financing, priorities of space needs, and the maximum
capacity for construction.
The recommendations are of two kinds — those which would help the
University catch up with past needs, and those which would prepare for the
future.
It should be emphasized that the recommended building program takes
into account improvement of present performance as well as new enrolments.
One-half of the space recommended is designed to help the University fulfil
present obligations, including the requirements of the present program at the
Chicago Undergraduate Division. Providing the faculty with research
equipment and space and with facilities adequate for efficient instruction
has come to be a primary element in faculty morale and in recruitment
of staff.
The planning upon which the Building Program Committee has made its
recommendations is flexible and susceptible to continuing refinement and
revision. The Committee has utilized the ideas of faculty and staff from
throughout the University as well as those of special consultants. The plan
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is one in which we can all have the greatest of confidence as to objectivity,
integrity, and professional quality.
Planning Assumptions for the Development
of the Chicago Undergraduate Division
A major portion of the physical planning is devoted to the Chicago Under-
graduate Division. Approximately $50,000,000 of the ten-year estimate of
$198,534,000 is allocated to proposed permanent facilities for the present
two-year program. This figure will have to be increased by any site cost
above $3,000,000 and by facilities required by expansion to degree programs.
At the October 23 meeting of the Policy Committee of the University of
Illinois Board of Trustees, the preliminary report on site studies prepared
by the Real Estate Research Corporation was presented. Four sites were
identified as being superior to all others proposed, considered in the light of
the criteria, other than cost and availability, established by the Real Estate
Research Corporation in consultation with the Board of Trustees and Uni-
versity of Illinois officials. When information regarding cost and availability
is at hand, a ranking of the four sites will be made.
The Chicago Undergraduate Division is being planned so that it can
develop into a general campus of the University of Illinois, serving commut-
ing students living in the Chicago area. Authoritative estimates indicate that
15,000 to 20,000 students may be expected at the Chicago campus by 1970.
Staff plans call for the development of the campus in several stages. The
first stage will be the establishment, by 1963, at the permanent campus of
programs currently being offered at Navy Pier — the first two years of col-
lege work, including the following areas of instruction: liberal arts and
sciences, engineering (including architecture), commerce and business ad-
ministration, and physical education.
The second stage will be the establishment of four-year degree programs
in a limited number of fields of instruction. It is anticipated that courses for
upperclassmen will be added as soon after 1963 as physical facilities and
operational funds can be made available.
As the need for new programs arises, and as soon thereafter as the proper
physical facilities and staff can be provided, additional curricula will be
offered at the Chicago Undergraduate Division.
Each major step in the development of the Chicago campus will be taken
after full consultation with the Illinois Commission of Higher Education,
with due consideration of the services of other institutions in the area.
The Real Estate Research Corporation has advised the Board of Trustees
that any one of the four sites described in its prelimiary report would be
superior in meeting the criteria of accessibility, expansibility, and general
character. As already noted, a choice from among the four sites must yet be
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made in terms of cost and availability. The latter factor is defined in terms
of the time table established by the Board of Trustees. This time table
provides for the beginning of construction in January, I960, and the reloca-
tion of the Chicago Undergraduate Division on the new campus in the fall
of 1963, when facilities must be ready to accommodate 6,000 commuting
students, 1,500 more than can be accommodated at Navy Pier.
Chicago Professional Colleges
Another major portion of the building planning has to do with the
Chicago Professional Colleges.
When the Research and Educational Hospitals were completed, the gen-
eral plan called for the remodeling of the older structures for laboratories
and non-hospital uses by the Colleges. This program of remodeling has
proceeded slowly, partly because funds have not been available in sufficient
amount, and partly because each new step is dependent upon the comple-
tion of a prior one. The completion of this remodeling program requires
approximately $7,000,000.
New construction at the Chicago Professional Colleges includes comple-
tion of the Research Building, the first half of which is now under construc-
tion, a laboratory addition to the Hospitals, the Medical Sciences Building,
completion of the Dental-Medical-Pharmacy Building, the provision of a
gymnasium and an auditorium, and construction of a drug and horticulture
building. Service projects include steam plant, laundry, and a student union.
The estimated cost of new construction is $25,000,000, with a total re-
quirement at the Medical Center campus in the next ten-year period of
approximately $32,000,000.
The ten-year allocation to the Champaign-Urbana campus is $115,-
960,000. The details of this program are included in the printed report
which has had distribution and which is available upon request. The grand
total for the ten years is $198,534,000.
The physical needs of the University of Illinois are large. They represent
a backlog of accumulated building deficits and a conservative estimate of
the minimum requirements for future enrolments and for an adequate
research program. The estimates are projected on the assumption that
student housing will be self-liquidating over the lifetime of the buildings and
that many facilities will come to the University through private gifts and
matching grants.
I believe the planning estimates are conservative. Both economy and
efficiency require that we move forward promptly in their fulfilment. For
these reasons the Building Program Committee has suggested that we build
as rapidly as construction capacity permits during the next four years. This
means a capital budget of $54,879,000 in 1959-61; $68,340,000 in 1961-63;
and the balance of $75,315,000 in 1963-69.
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In this discussion of internal planning for the University I have stressed
the two reports which have had to do with over-all University responsibili-
ties in education and physical plant planning. Note should be taken also of
the planning activities going forward on the direction of University com-
mittees dealing with instruction by television, alumni affairs, degree pro-
grams of the Chicago Undergraduate Division, University extension, general
education, programs for gifted students, space science and technology, ger-
ontology, student services, instruction and research in child development,
religious education, community problems. These study groups are in addi-
tion to the many important standing and ad hoc committees assisting in the
solution of immediate administrative problems or advising on continuing
policy.
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III. State Planning
Any discussion of the State of the University in 1958-59 must take into
account the University's relationships with other institutions and the activi-
ties in state planning for higher education.
There is a great deal of general interest in this subject. In public dis-
cussion, there is also a great deal of oversimplification of the issues involved
as well as an exaggeration of some of the weaknesses of the present
arrangements.
THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION
The current public interest in state planning in higher education came
into focus in the creation in 1957 of the Illinois Commission of Higher
Education. Organized late in that year, the Commission undertook its
assignment with vigor and already has progress to report. It procured a
highly competent professional staff, created a number of advisory commit-
tees, and initiated a number of important studies. It has met regularly and
faithfully in undertaking its heavy responsibilities. It will present its first
report to the Governor and the General Assembly early in 1959.
The University of Illinois has cooperated fully with the Commission, has
made staff resources available for the Commission's work and has inter-
estedly participated in the discussions at all levels and at all stages.
In my view, the Commission represents a sound, practical middle ground
for effective state planning in higher education in Illinois. It is "middle
ground" in the sense that it is structured between voluntary and mandatory
coordination. As a design for practical progress, the Commission deserves
support and understanding as it deals with the complex problems involved.
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PUBLIC INTEREST IN STATE PLANNING
The present public interest in state planning is related to the new wide-
spread concern about the welfare of higher education. It has been said that
the average citizen is ambivalent in his attitude toward the colleges and
universities. He is amazed at the projected cost in dollars and energy to
gear up the educational enterprise to the requirements of the space age; yet
he realizes that education has become an instrument of national defense and
international policy as well as of economic strength and individual fulfilment.
As he studies ways and means to strengthen education, Mr. Average
Citizen expects wise planning, prudent management, and efficient utilization
of educational resources. He is beginning to ask for state planning as a
condition for greater support. Unilateral, institutional expansion without
professional study of the needs of the state as a whole or of the potential
contribution of all institutions supplying that need, public and private,
appear to him unwise. Favoring one geographical area at the expense of
another will not make much sense. He will expect new developments to be
based on a broad view of higher education in the public service, upon facts
rather than bias, upon consultation rather than competition, and upon the
ability to evolve adequate machinery for the implementation of interinstitu-
tional action.
THE UNIVERSITY'S RESPONSIBILITY IN STATE PLANNING
What are the responsibilities of the state university in state planning?
Some say, "Why bother about what others do? Why not chart one's own
course, go one's own way?" A ready answer, already suggested, is that
participation in state planning is a matter of intelligent internal planning.
Obviously what happens in any one institution affects in some way every
institution. For example, no comprehensive state university can ignore the
impact upon its own work from the efforts of regional institutions to under-
take state-wide responsibilities. No state university can ignore the develop-
ment of junior colleges. No state university can ignore the expansion of
other institutions within the state and remain efficient or realistic in its own
programming.
Equally important is the public view of the comprehensive land-grant
state university as having a responsibility to the state as a whole on many
fronts. It is a source of ideas on many subjects. The university is expected
to exercise leadership in all planning where education and research have a
bearing on the state's welfare.
Beyond current necessity and historical expectation, there is the inherent
professional obligation to have the university's resources utilized in the im-
provement of education service in general. Incumbent upon all state uni-
18
versities is* the expectation for educational statesmanship in working for a
prudent and wise utilization of a state's resources, for leadership in planning
for maximum results from the expenditures of the state's educational dollars
and energy.
DEFINING COORDINATION
While we may believe that state planning is inevitable and that sound
state planning will encourage a prudent use of the state's resources, and
make for an orderly pattern of institutional relationships, we must also take
note of the parallel public concern with the question of enforced coordina-
tion of the state universities and other institutions. The new interest in this
subject arises from different sources, for different reasons: from some who
have an interest in making sure that state planning will be quickly effective;
from others who have an interest only in limiting expenditures.
A single board of control for the public institutions within a state is not a
panacea, however. Experience with this mechanism is uneven among the
states where it has been tried and at best it cannot deal adequately with the
institutions outside its jurisdiction. Further, merely amalgamating boards
of control or creating a "super board" does not automatically achieve the
result desired among the institutions directly concerned. In the more com-
plex situations, particularly, there should also be carefully designed plans for
integration of administration and of program and agreement on general
objectives. Without such integration, a super-board plan may but transfer
present confusion from one arena to another.
There are those who say that voluntary planning, without any new ma-
chinery, is enough. Unfortunately, the record on voluntary planning is not
very good. There are a few examples in the United States where such
planning is apparently working. However, one institution moving in a
competitive spirit and without regard for the welfare of the state as a whole
can destroy cooperative relationships. In such a situation, the main state
university cannot adequately make its case or reply to covert criticism,
because a public quarrel is an inappropriate posture for a professionally
responsible agency.
The machinery for state planning cannot be patterned on example, more-
over. Examples are always illustrative, but they do not prove. It is well to
remember the limitations on comparisons. No two institutions can be com-
pared, for they are unlike in too many ways. Nor can one state solve its
problems by imitating others.
Institutions, like people, resemble one another in many ways, but in
personality, nature, temperament, purposes, character, each is an individual
and must be understood as an individual. States, too, must work out their
19
problems in the light of their resources, their history, their standards and
aspirations.
Institutional relationships must be hammered out in ways indigenous to a
state community. The organization of one state may look effective, but still
be ineffective in another. Coordination at the state level must take into
account historical relationships and present capacities, as well as the differ-
ences in leadership and professional attitudes.
In trying to build a state plan for the future of higher education, there is
not one answer but many. Junior colleges must be encouraged. Private
institutions must be utilized to the utmost. New institutions may have to be
established. Existing institutions must be strengthened and helped to grow.
In facing these new developments, it must be continually emphasized that
coordination is a result, not a process. It cannot successfully be imposed. It
does not arrive suddenly. It does not come through edict or mandate. Effec-
tive state plans grow out of the experience of institutions in working together.
I believe that improved coordination among the institutional programs
and services in Illinois will be the outcome of professional studies and
discussions, particularly if there is adequate machinery for effective com-
munication and analysis. The Commission of Higher Education can provide
that machinery.
Further, I believe that the most useful work of the Commission will be
planning for the future. While existing programs and services have to be
taken into account in such planning, our joint efforts will be most productive
if pointed toward dealing with the problems which can be solved only with
the help of the Commission and about which there is considerable urgency.
AN APPROACH TO COOPERATIVE PLANNING
Believing that institutions should not regard what is best for the state as a
whole as in any way inimical to their own development, I have stated to the
Commission of Higher Education that the University of Illinois would sup-
port having all plans, including its own, submitted to impartial scrutiny
along the following lines:
1 . The specific need for a proposed new program should be defined.
2. Plans to fill the need for a new program should not be adopted until
ways and means to fulfil existing needs in the same field for which the
state already has an obligation are measured.
?>. Further, new major obligations should not be undertaken until existing
needs in all fields in all institutions are examined and priorities considered.
4. Then, proposed new programs at all institutions should be considered, to
see if any have equal or prior claim upon the state's resources.
20
5. Finally, consideration should be given to when, where, and how best to
fulfil the specific need upon which the proposal is based.
The way is uncharted and intricate. How to get the best in planning
without intruding unwisely upon the professional responsibilities of the uni-
versities is a central question in the future of institutional relations in many
states, particularly in populous states with a variety or large number of
colleges and universities.
With restraint in answering unfair criticism, with patience in dealing with
unwise demands, with objectivity in viewing the needs of the commonwealth,
the University of Illinois must work for improved institutional relationships
in general and for state planning in particular; it must continue to press for
impartial appraisal, in a state-wide context, of professionally prepared and
objectively considered recommendations in planning for the future.
21
IV. The Budget Year
Since the fulfilment of the needs and opportunities of the University in
large measure is related to financial resources, it is obvious that the State of
the University in the future will be greatly influenced by the actions of the
General Assembly in 1959.
The University has done its planning prudently and carefully, and the
officers of the University have every reason to believe that the requests will
be received by the Governor and the members of the General Assembly with
sympathetic interest and understanding.
Reference has been made to the ten-year building program. We all hoped
that accelerated progress in the development of that program would be
authorized by the voters of the state in the bond issue proposal which was
recently upon the ballot.
A WORD ON THE BOND ISSUE
Now that the bond issue has apparently failed of adoption in the referen-
dum, some other way to finance the capital requirements will have to be
found. The needs remain exactly as they were before the election. They
are serious, and only prompt and effective action by the legislature can
prevent their resulting in a deterioration in quality of service and a failure
to meet rising enrolments and other mounting obligations.
It is reassuring to note that among those who voted on the bond issue; a
22
decisive majority was in its favor. Further, despite extended public discus-
sion of the question, the needs for which the bond issue was proposed were at
no time seriously questioned. It is to be assumed, I believe, that the people
of Illinois wish to have a first-rate system of higher education and that they
believe these needs ought to be met, but that they prefer that these needs be
financed in ways other than general obligation bonds.
We look forward to working with the Governor and the General Assembly
in defining next steps. The capital budget of the University as approved by
the Board of Trustees for the next biennium is $54,879,000.
THE OPERATION BUDGET
The operation budget for 1959-61 has been filed with the Department of
Finance. It was submitted by the President, and approved by the Board of
Trustees, after the usual careful preparation by the University Budget Com-
mittee and in consultation with the University Council.
While substantial reductions were made by the Budget Committee in the
original estimates prepared by the colleges, schools, institutes, and other
units, the estimates as submitted represent a firm ground for continuing
progress.
The requested increase for the biennium is in the amount of $26,948,000,
or approximately 26 per cent of the current appropriation. The total re-
quested budget of $131,510,000 includes $118,410,000 from tax resources of
the state and $13,100,000 from University income.
Mandatory Increases
Of the $26,948,000, $10,248,000 may be classified as for mandatory
increases. This amount is necessary for increased contribution to the Uni-
versity Retirement System, including some improvements, the amount to
continue for a full biennium certain expenses of the present budget carried
for only one year, the increase necessary for expense and equipment to meet
rising costs, and to continue on a permanent basis expenditures financed this
year temporarily from savings. There is also the amount required to put new
buildings in operation and to staff the expected additional enrolments.
The difference between the amount requested and the mandatory in-
creases noted above is for three items: $4,100,000 is for improvement in the
educational programs, $600,000 is for health insurance, and $12,000,000 is
for salary adjustments.
Improving the Educational Program
The amounts requested by deans and directors for improving the educa-
tional program in the biennium was $14,334,000. This sum was reduced by
23
the Budget Committee to $4,100,000. All the programs requested were
desirable and important. It was felt, however, that with the central impor-
tance of the salary item, the new budget should be restricted to expansion of
areas of teaching, research, and public service, which would maintain the
University's academic position, leaving to another time the question of
inauguration of new programs.
While the sum proposed for this purpose is less than 30 per cent of the
requests from deans and directors, it does cover the minimum amount
needed to enable the University to meet current professional expectations.
It will thus provide for essential improvements.
Health Insurance
A new item in the budget request, in the amount of $600,000, is for the
University's contribution to the health insurance program.
The University has in the past arranged, on a voluntary basis, hospital,
medical, and surgical insurance for members of the staff and their depend-
ents. A staff committee, after a thorough study, recommends a comprehen-
sive plan which would cover the first $250 of all hospital expenses, and
80 per cent thereafter. It would also cover 80 per cent of medical expendi-
tures in excess of $100. Each person would be insured for a $15,000 maxi-
mum benefit. The University would pay the full cost of the insurance for
staff members and half of the premium for dependents. This proposal is in
line with a growing practice in industry and provides an excellent personnel
benefit at a relatively low cost to the state.
Salary Adjustment
In the opinion of all concerned with budget preparation, including the
Board of Trustees, the salary adjustment for the staff in the amount of
$12,000,000 for the biennium is the key concern.
While the increases provided in the 1957-59 budget have enabled the
University to keep pace with increases granted in similar institutions, further
adjustments of considerable magnitude will be required during the next four
bienniums if faculty salaries are to be brought into line with comparable
professions and other universities of great distinction. The President's Com-
mittee on Education Beyond the High School has recommended that faculty
salaries be increased to twice the 1956 level within five to ten years.
From 1952 until 1956 the cost of living remained fairly constant, rising
only 2 per cent during the four-year period. Thus, the increases made during
that period represented substantial gains in purchasing power. During the
last two years, however, in spite of the business recession, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics Index of Consumer Prices has risen steadily so that the price
level is now 6.5 per cent greater than it was two years ago. There are good
reasons for believing that a similar trend in living costs will continue.
24
The increases in faculty salaries at a number of other universities in the
Middle West since 1951 on the average have exceeded those at the Univer-
sity of Illinois. These schools are planning for increases comparable to those
presented here. In 1957 the University ranked fourth among the Council of
Ten Universities in average salaries for full professors, fifth for associate
professors, third for assistant professors, and second for instructors.
Several leading universities now have minimum salaries of $12,000 for full
professors. The minimum at the University of Illinois is now $8,400, and it
should be raised. Approximately three-quarters of the academic staff are
below the rank of professor.
The gap between faculty salaries and commercial and industrial positions
requiring comparable training is so great that many of the most promising
students go into other lines of work. The situation is particularly acute in
engineering, but shortages also exist in architecture, law, commerce, medi-
cine, dentistry, chemistry, and many other fields.
Business Week magazine has reported that the average salary of ten-year
college graduates is $9,200 for industry and $10,400 for banking. This is
from 20 to 30 per cent more than the average University of Illinois faculty
member of similar seniority receives. A neighboring engineering school
recently made a study of 47 teachers who left its faculty to enter industry.
Two-thirds of the former staff members received industrial salaries which
exceeded their academic salaries by 50 per cent, and one-sixth of them
received more than twice as much.
The University of Illinois has one of the largest and one of the finest
colleges of medicine in the country. Yet fewer than 10 per cent of the full-
time staff of the College receive salaries above the national average for
practicing physicians.
The most serious problem facing higher education in the next decade is
recruiting enough personnel adequately to staff classes for twice the present
enrolment. The University can ill afford to lose staff to other professions,
and concerted efforts must be made to attract more people to the teaching
profession. Many men and women are temperamentally attracted to the
academic life, but to hold even these a generous increase in the salary level
is essential.
Adjustments in nonacademic salaries must be made to keep pace with
anticipated increases in industry and in private and federal employment.
In most nonacademic groups the salaries are now reasonably in line with
comparable positions elsewhere, but further adjustments are needed in
some areas.
Altogether, $4,000,000 is needed for salary adjustments in the first year of
the biennium and an additional $4,000,000 the second year, a total of
$12,000,000 for the biennium.
25
The amount requested is nearly half the new money asked for, and is
approximately 10 per cent of the total proposed budget from tax funds. It
is not the final answer to the salary problem, but it will permit a continua-
tion of orderly improvement.
From the foregoing it is apparent that grave issues in financing higher
education confront the Governor and the 1959 General Assembly.
The University of Illinois has prepared its budget recommendation with
an awareness of the fiscal problems of the state but also with a careful
measure of its responsibilities.
The increase in population, the demands of the economy, the require-
ments for progress in a space age create new necessities. There is no
inexpensive or easy way in providing quality education and productive
research for high level performance in all areas of our economy as we
compete internationally for new ideas and new knowledge.
26
V. The Faculty Emphasis
At the risk of repeating the obvious, I shall make a few comments on
the central place of the faculty in the life, government, and planning of
the University of Illinois. Our taking this point for granted, our not talk-
ing about it very much, may lead some to overlook it. The academic
verities should be repeated occasionally.
The panel on education in the recent Rockefeller Brothers Fund Report
emphasized the need for continuing concern with individual values in these
words:
The danger is that we may forget the individual behind a facade of huge and
impersonal institutions. The risk is that we will glorify science and forget the
scientists; magnify government and ignore the men and women who discharge its
functions; pin our hopes on education, business or cultural institutions, and lose
sight of the fact that these institutions are no more creative or purposeful than the
individuals who endow them with creativity and purpose.
Beyond the temptation to overlook the individual, there is another danger. This
is the difficulty of giving free expression to creativity within an institutional atmos-
phere. We face the threat that our increasingly organized efforts will become
increasingly routine; that the structures of science, government, and enterprise will
become hard shells resistant to growth and change, rather than flexible institutions
capable of renewing and re-creating themselves. 1
It should be obvious to all who inform themselves about University of
Illinois affairs that this institution has built a strong and effective tradition
for faculty participation in University planning and policy decisions.
Faculty views are influential in all matters affecting the life and welfare
of the University. As the University has become large, it has necessarily
become dependent upon representative faculty views, but even within this
framework the senates, committees, and councils have remained vital and
constructive.
1 The Pursuit of Excellence — Education and the Future of America — Special
Studies Project, Report V — Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Garden City, Doubleday &
Co., Inc., 1958, p. IX.
27
But I would speak not alone of faculty participation in the organized
life of the University — I emphasize the place of the individual teacher
and scholar. Our planning for the future is not only for students but to
enable the faculty better to do its work with students and to advance
research. New buildings are important for new enrolment, but they are
also essential to give the scholar the tools for professional achievement.
Emphasis on improvement in the salary structure has been a central point
in recent budget presentations and it will remain so in the next.
Every effort to strengthen the University in quality and importance in
the life of the state and the nation is indirectly a support of the faculty.
As the University grows in prestige and is recognized for academic
strength, faculty welfare is proportionately advanced.
Some believe that University growth and faculty welfare are in com-
petition. They advocate arbitrary limitations of size and expansion of
function. In my opinion, this position does not recognize the dynamics
of institutional strength. The welfare of the faculty is related to the
normal and wholesome growth of the University. Support will be procured
only for that which in the broad sense is regarded as important.
James Conant has reminded us of the continuing interrelationships of
public understanding, normal growth, and faculty welfare. "Through the
thousand years of university history, one fact has stood out; universities
have flourished when their teaching was relevant to the times; universities
have withered when they clung to outworn disciplines and traditions. But
lest we rashly innovate for innovation's sake, we must remember that
universities have also sickened when they entered rashly upon new ven-
tures irrelevant to the problems of their times." 2
As we translate our planning for the future into qualitative terms,
whether we are discussing salaries or buildings or new programs, let us
remember that in so doing we are dealing with the welfare of the faculty.
2 Conant, James B. "The University and a Free Society" (History of the Ohio
State University; Vol. V, Addresses and Proceedings of the Inauguration of Howard
Landis Bevis, October 24 and 25, 1940), Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1941.
28
VI. University Relations
In discussing the State of the University and in making plans, we must
recognize that the future will be determined in part by attitudes and
events beyond our control. What happens to any one institution is in-
fluenced by the climate for higher education generally. We are reminded
by James Bryant Conant that "Public demand has shaped the evolution
of American education, and informed public opinion will largely determine
the future pattern." 1
The fact that the comprehensive state university, as typified by the
institutions of the Middle West, has grown in scope and strength should
not lead to complacency, to thinking that the critics have been dispersed,
that debate on fundamental issues can be avoided, or that institutional
relations can be ignored.
We may discount the current talk about asking the student to pay the
full cost of his education as inconsistent with the tradition of the people's
university, one available to all who have the ability to meet its require-
ments. We may minimize the current talk about limiting enrolments to
those who are exceptionally talented as being inconsistent with the Ameri-
can dream of education for all who can profit from educational service.
We may believe that the current talk about ceilings on expenditures for
education is inconsistent with the studies that show that the state univer-
sities have been responsible for improvements in the economy far beyond
any expenditures made upon them, improvement arising from new knowl-
edge, from trained personnel, and from implementation of new ideas.
But these topics are receiving serious public attention and they are but
representative of a number of others to which the state universities must
aggressively respond.
1 The Citadel of Learning, Conant, James B., Yale University Press, 1956, p. 51.
29
A recent issue of Fortune Magazine contained a feature article attacking
what the author referred to as the "Productivity Record of the Colleges
and Universities," emphasizing per pupil costs and faculty-student ratios
as the measure of productivity. The author voices the question as to
whether the changes in American education over the past two decades
have made for an improvement or a deterioration of the educational
product. 2
This is but one article and one spokesman. But students of public
opinion know that the theme is a recurrent one.
The Kiplinger Magazine, Changing Times, for November, 1958, featured
the headline "Waste in the Colleges," asking questions: Why don't colleges
make more efficient use of their space and facilities? Why don't colleges
make more efficient use of their teachers? Why don't colleges prune away
superfluous courses?
Other questions that are up for public discussion are: Is there strength
in the concentration of resources in the comprehensive state university or
should new services and resources be further regionalized? Should volun-
tary giving to public universities be encouraged? Does the state control
of universities interfere with institutional efficiency and academic integrity?
Are admissions practices and policies changing rapidly enough? What is
the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which our students and faculty
work? Should the student be expected to pay the full cost of his educa-
tion or at least as much of it as he can get money for by borrowing?
Then there are the practical considerations which arise from conditions
governing the recruitment of college teachers, developments in federal
policies, the utilization of university experts in applied fields, the require-
ments of basic research, the distribution of educational service.
While it is true that the settlement of many of these issues will be beyond
the control of any one university, no one institution is absolved from
making its contribution to a professional solution of the questions raised.
Some one has said that the cynic is the termite of education. This may be
true, but I believe institutional lassitude in general professional matters is
a far more serious threat to accelerated progress. Edmund Burke said
"for the triumph of evil it is only necessary that good men do nothing."
Some of the issues confronting higher education will be settled in this
pattern unless professionally we all do all that we can, beyond our own
individual assignments and responsibilities, to help in the public under-
standing of the role of higher education in American life.
2 Seligman, Daniel, "The Low Productivity of the Education Industry," Fortune,
October, 1958, p. 135 ff.
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